Sostenibilidad

Eco-citizenship is an integral part of our corporate ethics. We strive to use natural resources efficiently and respect our environment by minimizing waste generation and impacts on the air, water and land. From the first step of our manufacturing process, we use a recovered material, scrap.

We respect the environment in our process and products by sorting and reusing production wastes, by very tight management of our supply chain, by being as near as possible to our customers, and by offering green services to our clients (e.g. Phenics).

Innovation : Preserving the environment

Eco-citizenship forms an integral part of corporate ethics at Winoa. This concern is part of a carefully planned continuous improvement process, the results of which are regularly measured. This process is reflected at two levels: by reducing the impact of production activities on the natural environment and by placing more environmentally-friendly, innovative solutions at our customers' disposal.

Preservation of the natural environment

Winoa's principal activity, the production of steel abrasives, is an activity with a positive effect on the environment given that the raw material used is obtained by recycling scrap. For the rest, Winoa makes every effort to optimise the use of natural resources and to treat all waste prior to disposal.

Exemple of Le Cheylas plant

In 2008, Le Cheylas plant, in France, benefited from major capacity and modernisation investments that led to significant progress in terms of environmental protection:

• Energy: appreciable gains have been made on a regular basis with regard to electricity and gas consumption.

• Air quality: the performance of dedusting units has been multiplied by 4 in the past 20 years, thereby leading to a considerable improvement in waste quality.

• Water treatment: the plant is equipped with highly efficient devices for reducing the quantity of water used (-50%), for lowering the temperature of waste water and guaranteeing its quality, in accordance with the most stringent standards.

• Recycling of industrial waste: sludge from water settling tanks is recycled as a raw material in blast furnaces. Steelworks dust is also recycled.

Promoting ecological solutions

Winoa gives its customers the benefit of its expertise to improve the ecological performance of their own production.

Advances have been made on products and processes supplied: thanks to the quality of Premium, its wear resistance and the possibility of reusing it several times, abrasive consumption has been halved.

Advances have also been made through the deployment of new services: Phenics, for example, is a very environmentally-friendly solution. By advantageously replacing the use of non-reusable mineral abrasive, it provides considerable savings in the amount of abrasive used and includes efficient waste treatment, thus eliminating its impact on the environment.

Certifications

For many years Winoa France has been engaged in a process of constant improvement of its Quality, Security and Environment performances.

As an electricity-intensive group, managing its energetic performance has always been at the core of Winoa.

To reach this goal an ISO 50 001 process has been launched. On July 5, thanks to the efforts of all, the certification was obtained. Winoa becomes the first certified electricity-intensive group in France.